The one that (almost) got away
by TechnoGirl317
Summary: Faith Coral Green is a teenager who still believes in the guardians. Sort of. Her belief is crumbling under constant bullying from her older brother and his gang. Can Jack turn it around? Summary/title suck, hopefully the story is better. Rated T for now because I have no clue where this is going to go. No pairings. Somewhat related to my story AMM, but can also stand alone.
1. Chapter 1

** A/N Yay another story! I'm a little nervous about this one. But I'm on a major Rise of the Guardians streak right now, so I needed to start on some. Expect some delay in updates because if I get stuck I'll probably jump around and I can't keep up with all of them. That plus school plus the fact that I'm a dedicated night owl and get better ideas late at night **_**plus **_**the fact that I'm prone to writer's block and don't have the movie may make this a bit tricky. **

**Speaking of which does anyone know where I can watch it online for free?**

**But on the bright side, there were two hour early releases all last week due to heat! (What do they expect making us start so early in the year?!)**

**Oh, thanks to kittylove12, Can't Stop Fangirling, samathab322, Uchiha no Kaori, .7, Thomas-Michael, tainted-lily, Zorua Illusion, starskulls, and ****Irishlovergirl, for following, favoriting, and/or just plain helping and supporting me along! It means a lot.**

**Enough of my blabbering and on with the story!**

**One last thing: I do not own Rise of the Guardians. Just my OC.**

**Enjoy!**

**Edit: Jeez guys, sorry, long A/N, I know. But to the people who have stuck with me from the beginning, I just wanted to let you know I changed the beginning of this chapter. Hope I didn't mess up too badly and you still like it, but I got a great idea and had to use it!**

Jack heard the bell and swooped down, searching for a now familiar girl named Faith in the sea of kids streaming from the school. The it's-finally-Christmas-break excitement and chatter made it even more difficult than ever to find her.

He smiled as he found her in her typical outdoors winter outfit: fur-lined cream colored hood covering most of her head, a bit of hair sticking out, cream colored winter jacket, cream colored snow pants and black winter boots.

She was walking home with her friend as always. She had long, dark red hair, bright blue eyes and tan skin, and was wearing a light blue coat with snowflakes on it, her matching hood lined with white fuzz, dark purple snow pants, and black boots.

Jack had instantly recognized her as his friend Gwyneira, or as he called her, Gil. She had noticed him following a few days ago, but when he walked home with her the first day, he told her what he was planning, and she agreed to pretend he wasn't there.

He followed closely behind Faith and Gil as they walked home, chatting. Before too long Gil had to head off in a different direction. Before she left, Faith stopped her and gave her a small box, neatly wrapped in metallic red paper. Then she looked down, put her hands behind her back, and rocked back and forth slightly. Gil opened it slowly and brought out a necklace. The string was lavender and it had tiny, see-through dark purple and frosty blue glass beads. She gasped, undid the clasp and put it on immediately.

"Thank you! It's amazing!"

Finally the giver looked up with a shy smile. "You really think so? I thought you wouldn't like it."

"Are you kidding? I love it!"

They hugged and after some goodbyes and see you laters Gil left and she stood watching her for a second before she shook herself and kept going the way they had been.

Jack raced after Faith, wishing he could cheer her up, but throwing a snowball at her wouldn't help; she couldn't see him and she'd think it was another bully trying to make her feel miserable. He had seen it happen, all because she still believed in Santa Claus, though when she argued that he was real, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

Jack followed the now familiar path to Faith's house; he'd been doing this since she got back from Ohio. He didn't want her to be alone.

Before long, they both became deeply lost in thought.

**A week earlier:**

Jack and Sandy were at the Pole. Bunny had ran to the Warren the second Jack had shown up; he was _not _in the mood for the winter spirit's wild jokes. Tooth was out in the field and North was really busy with Christmas coming up in a few weeks.

Both Jack and Sandy, however, had found a break and were talking in the Globe Room. Jack had been casting his eyes around aimlessly and they fell on a certain light on the globe, somewhere in Ohio. His eyes were fixed solidly on it, his expression one of disbelief.

The light was flickering like crazy, sometimes dim, other times bright as the others, sometimes so dim you couldn't really tell it was on at all.

Sandy snapped his fingers in front of Jack's face, snapping him out of his reverie in the process.

Jack shook himself and looked at Sandy, who formed a question mark over his head with an expression that very clearly asked, "What the _heck _was that about?"

The dazed winter spirit merely pointed at the flickering light and muttered, "I've never seen a light flicker so violently, let alone this close to Christmas."

Sandy saw what he was talking about almost immediately and a few exclamation marks replaced the question mark. That showed Jack that he'd never seen it either.

A smile grew on his face as a plan grew in his head. "Come on Sandy, let's go check it out!"

Sandy nodded in excitement and made several images above his head. Two flying figures going over to a child who saw them, smiled, then the globe flashed with a bright, unwavering light. Clearly he meant, "Maybe if we show up, he/she will believe completely again!"

Jack chuckled. "My thoughts exactly!"

The two guardians prepared for take-off, and Jack glanced at the light again. A split-second after he found it, without warning, it went off. And stayed off.

The Guardian of Fun gasped, both from shock, worry, and the jab of pain he felt the second it went out, quickly followed by a cold hollow feeling. Whoever it was must've been a huge believer, and they never even knew them.

Sandy felt it too, as had the other guardians. They oldest four sighed, they would never get used to that feeling. But that was worse than most.

After about 30 seconds of showing no sign of relighting, of Jack replaying the words _We were too late _in his head over and over, it turned back on and kept flickering, maybe a bit dimmer than before. The youngest and the oldest guardians sighed in relief, then looked at each other worriedly.

"We'd better hurry."

And with those words the two guardians shot off the ground, making their way as fast as possible to the source of the flickering light.

-A few minutes later-

Jack and Sandy arrived in the middle of a small park, where there was a stage set up for Christmas carols and karaoke. It looked like the whole town was there.

They flew backstage and hid behind a pile of crates by the curtains just as the announcer said, "And last but not least, Faith Coral Green singing Believe by Josh Groban!"

There was loud applause as a thin, pale, tall girl right next to them stood up. She had straight, but slightly messy, shoulder-length, white blonde hair so light that, if you didn't look closely enough, it looked as snow-white as Jack's. On one half it had streaks of dark purple and light blue in it, and all that, plus the pale skin, could remind people of winter.

On the other half there were streaks of bright red and orange and her cheeks were rosy, like she had just been playing outside in mild weather. She had a barrette with a few pretty fall leaves on it, obviously homemade. Those features were all fall-like.

Jack had been leaning forward to get a good look at the multi-seasonal-looking girl, and gasped as he slipped a bit and made a crate rattle. Faith looked right at him, eyes widening slightly before she shook herself and walked onto the stage, which made the applause louder.

But Jack just stared at where she had been. When she looked at him, he had gotten a good glimpse of her eyes. A warm, lush green with dapples of bright gold and brown, and, for just a second, the glint of a strong believer, then it dimmed again. They reminded the winter spirit of summer, the canopy of leaves in the woods.

As the chorusing and bells began, signaling the beginning of the song, Jack turned to Sandy and said, "Just me, or did she remind you of the seasons?"

Sandy nodded in agreement and put up a leaf bud in his sand.

"You're right Sandy, all that's missing is spring."

They were about to eat their words (or sand) as the intro ended and Faith started singing.

_"Children, sleeping, snow is softly, falling. Dreams are calling, like bells in the distance..."_

"I stand corrected." Jack said in awe, staring at the girl. Her voice sounded like a mixture of tiny, perfect bells and beginning-of-spring birdsong.

_"We were, dreamers, not so long ago. But one by one we, all had to grow up._

_When it seems the magic slipped away, we'll find it all again on Christmas Day,"_

Sandy let out a whistle.

The two spirits listened to the rest of the song in awed silence.

_"When it seems that we have lost our way, we'll find ourselves again of Christmas Day. Believe in what your heart is saying, hear the melody that's playing, there's no time to waste, there's so much to celebrate. Believe in what you feel inside and give your dreams the wings to fly! You have everything you need, if you just believe, if you just believe, if you just believe. Just believe. Just believe." _

The outro ended and there were a few seconds of shocked silence, then there was a sound like a small explosion taking place as everyone clapped and cheered at the top of their lungs, Jack and Sandy included.

She came backstage, fingering a leaf bud on her necklace. It was hardened and shiny, so it must have been coated in something to preserve it. It looked too real to be fake, and brought out even more fall in her.

Jack and Sandy stepped out, planning on congratulating her, but she only hesitated for half a second before shaking herself again and walking around them, as though she sort of saw them and shook it off.

They soon discovered why she just walked around them as she muttered, "Nice try guys, I'm not falling for that one again."

Jack followed her cautiously and caught another string of words. "I just wish I could believe, I really do, but it's really hard to sometimes, even around Christmas."

Jack flew in front of her. "But you should believe! Two of us are here right now!"

But Faith just walked through him. Jack called out, "I'll get you to fully believe again, I know it's not impossible, I saw that glint of belief."

Faith gasped and stopped dead in her tracks, whirling around. For a split second she saw a thin, tall form floating a foot of the ground. Then it was gone. She sighed and turned back around.

Jack felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Sandy.

He looked sympathetically at Faith, then jerked his head towards the Pole.

Jack nodded, then looked at Faith one more time.

"I promise." He whispered as he flew past her.

When they got back to the pole, they saw her light a bit brighter, a bit steadier, and a definite increase in lights around that area.

**Present time.**

Jack was jerked out of his memories when Faith started singing When Christmas Comes to Town. **(A/N Not sure who sings it, but it's also from the Polar Express.)**

He was so wrapped up in listening to her singing that he ran right into a tree. Jack scowled, muttering something about "stupid solid objects." **(A/N reference to another one of my stories AMM. Just thought I'd mention it.) **He giggled but suddenly stopped as started talking to herself glumly.

"I really, really wish I could believe. But it's impossible. Mum and dad have already fessed up to being the Easter Bunny, Santa and the Tooth Fairy or, if you prefer, which I do, the Easter Kangaroo or Bunny, North and Tooth, but they haven't fessed up to being Sandy. Probably because they don't know that I know about him, I didn't till I was about seven. But still, how can you explain the sand in your eyes when you wake up? Or dreams? Sure there are documents on it but I don't really trust them. It's dreams and scientifical stuff can't prove everything." Jack snickered at her made up word. She whirled around and looked in his direction, thinking she had heard something, but only saw a flash of white hair before it was gone. Jack sighed in disappointment as he saw her ability to see him for a split second fade. 'So close!'

She continued her rant to herself. "And of course Jack Frost, he's always been my favorite child legend, and if the Guardians are real, my favorite Guardian, along with Sandy." She smiled nostalgically. "I wish I believed. I could've sworn I saw someone by me for a split second at that Christmas thing, and just now, and every night I think I see Sandy's outline floating by my bed but I never really see him and rarely have dreams of any sort. At least, few that I remember." She shook her head sadly and Jack felt sorry for the girl. At least Sandy had given it his best shot.

"Then of course Pitch." She shuddered. "I found out about him even later than I found out about about Sandy. Mum and dad never told me, but I guess bad dreams came every so often and he's associated with that. But after hearing the story of what he was like before, I feel a bit sorry for him. He was only trying to help his daughter."

Jack was shocked. He made a mental note to ask North what she was talking about and why she would know when even he didn't. He hoped she would talk more but she was silent until she got home and said hi to her dad, who was working in the office. He smiled and waved before getting back on the phone. Her mom, he knew, was at her work too.

Jack continued to follow Faith up to her room where she changed from jeans and a semi-nice shirt to black sweats, a light blue t-shirt and a blue hoodie much like his. Jack looked away when she did this.

When she was done changing, she crawled into her bed and turned on her lamp, flooding the room with bright green light. She smiled, then propped herself up on some pillows, grabbed a book and started reading. Jack couldn't tell exactly what it was, but she had started reading it yesterday before he had to leave and had gotten pretty far on it.

She laughed a bit and Jack smiled. Her laugh was much like her singing and wasn't used enough. Being all the school bullies favorite target made it hard to find _reason _to laugh.

As Faith read, her expression became softer and happier and Jack saw the glint of belief in her eyes growing.

She started humming the song she had been on the way home, smiling widely. After a few minutes she chuckled lightly and Jack joined her, glad to see Faith happy and carefree for a little bit.

Her head snapped up as she heard the winter spirit and he instinctually froze. Then he moved and noticed that Faith's eyes followed him, and her mouth was hanging open slightly. He flew towards her, and she leaned back as though trying to melt into the wall. She actually looked a little... _scared_.

Finally she whispered, "No, you're not real, you're another cruel prank my older brother decided to play on me. Are you? Please tell me you aren't, I want to believe, not have my belief crumble even more."

Jack felt his heart break a little. She was scared of him, all because of her brother and his friends.

He flew closer to the teenager, who tried to lean back even further. At present, she looked like a scared little kid.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Jack never thought he'd have to say that. Ever. "I'm not a trick, I'm real, see?" He touched Faith's hand and she shivered at the unexpected cold. Jack quickly withdrew it and showed her his staff. She examined it, the beautiful frost patterns and the ridges, every inch. Then he gave it to her, and the frost patterns stayed, shocking both of them.

Faith looked up at the winter spirit, her eyes wide and filled with belief. She suddenly lunged forward and hugged him tight, crying with joy. "You are real! I knew it!"

Once over the initial shock, Jack hugged her back, smiling. "I did promise I'd get you to believe again, didn't I?" He said, laughing slightly.

Faith pulled away and stared at the ground, rocking back and forth slightly and putting her arms behind her back. Jack had seen her do this earlier when she gave Gil her small, homemade present she was so scared she wouldn't like. It was her ashamed stance.

Finally Faith looked up, tears in her eyes and streaming down her face. "I'm sorry I didn't believe in you." She whispered in a barely audible, slightly choked voice.

Jack hugged her again. "It's ok, you do now. And from what I saw, I'm surprised you were able to hold on to it this long. Your belief is surprisingly strong, especially for a teen. Your light went out a few minutes before you went on stage, and I don't know about the other guardians, but I sure felt it. And when Sandy and I got back to the Pole, there were more lights in your area, and the ones that had been there already were even brighter."

"Really?"

"Yep. I bet if you hadn't started believing again I would still have the hollow feeling that came with it."

She pulled away again and grinned at him. Jack wiped away the tears that were still clinging on desperately to her cheeks.

"So how about we have a little fun with your brother and his friends?" Jack asked with a mischievous smile.

Faith's smiled mirrored his and her eyes had the light of revenge as she said in her melodious voice, "Let's do it."

**A/N Hope you like it! I do. Sorry if this was a little long, when I wanted to stop and split it into two parts it was too short, then I couldn't find a good splitting/ending point. I may be stuck for awhile.**

**I do not own the songs mentioned in this chapter.**

**Explanation time!**

**First off, Faith was reading the first book of the Guardians of Childhood series. I actually haven't read it all, so I'm not sure if there are any funny parts. **

**Faith knows the Guardians nicknames because she's seen Rise of the Guardians, and she reads fanfictions about it, which is how she knows about Pitch. For this story, the movie was actually inspired by little kids that believed and the movie writers somehow got it right.**

**And she was in Ohio for a few days to see her family there, because they were going somewhere else during the actual holidays and they still wanted to see each other. So she got out of school for a bit, then had to come back and go to another week of school before winter break.**

**As for Gil, I got the idea to sort of connect my stories through the characters. So this will have mentions of Gil, AMM will have mentions of Faith and, possibly later, this and AMM will have mentions of a not-yet-used OC I decided to call Sally, and maybe more later on, etc. Pretty much, if you want to understand all my OC references, you have to read all my stories relating to the used fandom. Sooo, sorry about that, guys, but I loved the idea and besides, you can just stick with reading one, the mentions won't be anything extremely important until I **_**do **_**have some adventure with multiple OCs. I'll be working more on AMM until it catches up with this a bit, it'll make references easier.**

**Again, sorry for mistakes. Review or PM if you liked it! Anything that shows you liked it really means a lot.**


	2. Chapter 2

** Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! This would've been up Friday, but for some reason Fanfiction wasn't working (as I'm sure some of you know), then I had to leave for a confirmation class retreat, got home yesterday at about 5:10, and since my brother's friend stayed for a sleepover and was using my computer, I was using my dad's and I promised not to download anything on there, which I have to do to put up a chapter (obviously). **

**Wow... I just now noticed how incredibly out-of-season this is... A Christmas story near the end of summer... Whoops. Let's just say somehow Believe got stuck in my head and it continued from there. :) And in the last chapter when I mentioned Faith's necklace, I accidentally said it reminded you of fall. I meant spring. *shrugs* Whoops (again). Anyway, hope you like it! **

**Also, I came up with (what I think is) a really good idea which included me rewriting the beginning of chapter 1 and may foretell some stuff in my other RotG fic. Not spoil, just foretell. Sorry, but I love the idea and it was worth slowing down my already slow updates. *Mutters.* Stupid school.**

**And I may take out the mentions to the movie and the fact she's seen it, but considering I only plan on mentioning once or twice more, I probably won't. **

***Distant voice* Get on with it already, Emu!**

**Me: Ok ok, hold your pants on Lydia! There's one more thing I need to do before I can get on on with the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RotG.**

**Happy now?**

**Lydia: Yes, thank you.**

**e_e Jeez. Anyway, **_**now **_**onto the story! ;) (I'm starting to have a bit of fun with the disclaimers). **

"Hey dad? I'm going to the park!" Faith yelled as she struggled with her left boot, hopping on one foot she made her way to the office.

Her dad, Craig Green, a thin, slightly-taller-than-average man with curly light brown hair with a little gray mixed in and wire glasses framing humor-filled brown eyes, spun his chair playfully away from his computer screen as his daughter hopped in, still struggling with the zipper of her boot; it looked like she was trying to wrestle her foot!

She finally got it unstuck and up. Putting her foot back down she looked at her dad with a sheepish grin as she pulled on her thick purple gloves; the ones she used for snowball fights.

He chuckled and looked her up and down, as though searching for a too-low neckline or super short shorts. Obviously used to this joke, Faith struck a really weird pose, flinging one hand behind her head as she looked up at the ceiling with a slight duck face, the other on her hip as she cocked her right leg so it was on tiptoe.

Her dad laughed again before pulling her into a tight hug.

"I'll see you later. Be safe." He murmured before releasing her.

"I will." She assured him, flashing a quick sign on her hand she grinned.

As though that was extremely typical of his youngest child, he chuckled and said, "I love you too, Faith."

He turned back to his computer and put his headphones back on as she walked out the office door and outside, meeting a grinning Jack Frost, who had his arms crossed and was tapping the ground with his foot like Sonic. Trying (and failing) to force his face into a slightly more serious expression he asked, "What took you so long?"

"The typical boot problem, finding my gloves and saying bye to my dad." She answered, grinning at his failed "serious" act. She flexed her purple-clad hands at him. "I don't do a lot of snowball fights and these are the gloves I use, and the zipper on my left boot refuses to zip easily."

"Ah." Jack said, trying to repress a laugh, but failed when Faith pulled off her hat with a flourish and went into that weird pose again. _Never fails! _She thought happily when Jack started rolling around, laughing his head off.

When he got up he had snow all over his head and it was Faith's turn to laugh. "You look like a snow cone!" She gasped through her laughter. "I think I'll call you that for now."

She thought she saw a flash of recognition flash across his face, but it was gone as quick as it came, replaced by a grin.

"Oh really?" He said playfully before making her hair blow straight back with his wind and frosting it into place. He laughed as much at her stunned expression as her hair, it looked like a two season icicle!

He grinned as an idea struck him. "Well, I'll call you Icicle, then!"

Faith slugged the winter spirit playfully in the arm, but she clearly liked the name. Much better than the ones she was used to.

Jack tried not to wince. Faith may not have seemed like she could, but dang she could punch hard!

He hurriedly rubbed his arm when she turned to go down the hill in her front yard on the light blue and purple sled she had, apparently, grabbed off the porch.

Jack smiled mischievously, coming up with a fun idea for the both of them. Or so he thought.

He promptly proceeded to make an ice path to the park, having the wind push Faith ahead. But it wasn't straight; it closely resembled the craziness of Jamie's ice-path sled ride; swerving into the road, going up a few ramps, etc, etc, and the hill leading to the park just helped.

Jack laughed, but stopped when he heard Faith screaming. Loudly.

His eyes widened at the fast-approaching truck, swerving Faith out of the way last second. _"Whoops."_ He whispered.

Turning her back onto the sidewalk, he continued the stunts until, finally, she stopped at the bottom of the hill, just short of running into a tree.

She launched herself off the sled and stood on wobbly legs, taking deep breaths and relying heavily on the tree in front of her to avoid collapsing.

Jack cocked his head in confusion. Normally kids were laughing by the end of his sled rides, even after being hit in the face by a sofa. Then again, nearly being run over by a truck probably didn't help. He flew over to her.

Touching her shoulder gently, he asked, "Icicle, are you ok?"

She turned towards him, her eyes showing not just normal fear, but the remnants of absolute terror.

"I-I'm f-fine." She stuttered. She didn't sound- or look- fine.

"Sorry 'bout that. I didn't see that truck coming." Jack muttered, feeling guilty.

"What truck?" Faith asked, confused.

"The one that nearly hit you? You didn't see it?"  
"Kind of hard to see when you have your eyes squeezed shut and are screaming basically the whole time." She shrugged.

"You were?" Jack asked, bewildered.

"Well, since you swerved me into the street, yeah. I have slight agyrophobia if I'm not in a car or there's any cars in sight. Even when there isn't I tend to jog or sprint across anyway, or at the very least, fight the urge to. I try to hide it, but a few people-plus now, a spirit- know."

Jack had a few questions swirling around in his head, the most persistent being "Who're the others?" But he, for some reason, felt he shouldn't ask and went with, "What's agyrophobia?"

"Fear of streets or crossing the street." She mumbled, and Jack's eyes widened in horror as he realized what he had just done to her was basically the equivalent of pushing him under water, swinging a torch in his face, or locking him in a small closet.

"Oh MiM! I'm so sorry Icicle, I had no idea!"

She smiled shakily up at him. "My fault. I didn't tell you, how were you supposed to know? You were just trying to have a bit of fun."

Still, he felt guilty, and she could tell, especially when he hung his head. Faith reached out to pat his arm, reassuring him that she was fine.

"Aw, come on, Snowcone, cheer up! How about we do what we came here to do in the first place? Namely, get some snow-cold revenge on my brother and his gang?"

Jack looked up at her touch and grinned at the name, but that quickly dropped as he heard multiple footsteps and jeering laughter nearby- and coming their way.

"Heya, Freak!" One of them yelled.

That one just happened to be Faith's brother, Nika.

He looked a lot like their dad, but more muscular, no glasses, and no humor or mercy in his brown eyes; only malice. Tall and incredibly popular, he was also cruel and ferocious **(Hence his name) **to the kids at school that were noticeably abnormal in nearly any category.

Which happened to include his little sister.

Despite the fact that she was only 13-years-old, Faith already knew what it was like to be shunned by a large group for no reason other than her looks and personality. She had been bullied most of her school life, and as she got older, it got more intense. It started with name calling, glares and ignorance by the people outside the group, who didn't care or didn't want to get involved, added small, but gradually increasing threats, and she had been beaten recently; she had the bruises to prove it.

Of course she wasn't stupid. She had went to the teachers, the counselor, the principal, even, but no one believed her. Her abusers were _way _too good at covering their tracks. They all had good reputations, grades, parents, etc. The fact they were really good liars and that mostly everyone was too scared to stand up against them, didn't care, approved of it, or hadn't even noticed didn't help matters.

In fact, if it weren't for her best- and really, only- friend, that first beating would've come a lot sooner.

"Hey, look at her hair! What happened, season-freak? You get stuck in a frozen wind tunnel?" Nika's "right hand man" jeered.

"Not to mention how much weirder it looks when you take into account her natural hair color... or, should I say, _colors_?" Nika smirked as he put emphasis on the s, but as he looked back at his sister, he was taken aback by her defiant glare. Not to mention the sinister smile...

Although a little uneasy now by Faith's sudden bravery, he pretended not to notice and went on jeering.

Faith, however, wasn't listening. She was too busy listening to Jack's plan and giving silent signals and ideas with her hands. _Who knew sign language was so helpful? _They thought.

As they put on the finishing touches, Faith's smile grew even more sinister. She cut off Nika and his group with one of her favorite lines from The Master of Disguise. "This is what you're doing." She said, flapping her hand like a mouth. Then she snapped it shut. "This is what I _want _you to do. Any questions?" Then she lost her "serious" face and replaced it with a wicked grin as she added, "Before you get clobbered?"

There was a few seconds of stunned silence before Nika came storming up. "Why you little... You and what army?" He growled, grabbing onto Faith's coat collar and slamming her against a tree. She just grinned. "That is the most cliche line in the book, dude! Oh, and you might wanna watch your back." Winking at Jack, who had a snowball in his hand, she wiggled free as Nika turned around- to a snowball-

"Right in the kisser!" Jack yelled, punching the air.

Everyone stared at Nika in shock, before he turned back to Faith, who had scrambled to the back of the tree where, unknowingly to him, she had been making a bunch of snowballs, which now launched at him.

As Nika decided to go all "dramatic fight scene" and yelled, "RETREAT!" Jack and Faith called out, "Oh no, you're not getting out _that _easily! We've only just started!"

The gang froze in their tracks as Nika turned around. "We?" He asked. "Who's we?"

"That's for us to know, and you to never find out!" The duo called out, laughing.

They tried to run but this time, they were literally _frozen in their tracks._

When Faith noticed this, she started rolling around on the snow, laughing as she choked out, "Nice touch!" When she got up, she tossed a grin and a double thumbs up at Jack. The group whipped their heads around, and, of course, saw no one, but there was a bunch of snow being swirled around by the wind.

No one realized Faith smiled at that, like she knew something no one else did...

In a last attempt at a threat, Nika turned to Faith and said, "You do realize people will hear about this, right? And boy, will you be sorry when people start shunning you."

She rolled her eyes. "Jeez, Nika. Fail of your life. Thanks to you, I'm already shunned. This won't make a speck of difference. Or, maybe it will, when your other victims hear about this, they may just join up. Who knows, you telling may be a major backfire. But go ahead, I don't care. I just want to see the Populars faces when they find you stuck here."

"Why do you say that?" He asked, alarmed.

"Well, look behind you." Faith pointed at the loud group of girls coming over, nearly all dressed in blinding hot pink. "Hey guys! Over here!" She yelled, waving, before turning back to her brother.

"You're about to look like an idiot! See ya!" Faith said in a singsongy voice as she ran, laughing, over to Jack, who was now behind a tree. She turned to him. "Think they've had enough?" She asked.

"Not quite. One more round should do it." Jack said, holding out a snowball.

She grinned, and they pelted them and the girls with some snowballs, laughing at the squeals as the girls got snow in their shirts and acted like it was the end of the world.

They ran (or flew) to the other side of the park to a giant tree, and Jack flew Faith up to the lowest branch, which was actually about 15 feet up. They sat there, still laughing.

"That really was a nice touch, Snowcone, I don't know why I didn't think of it!"

"Yeah, well, you know." Jack replied with fake boastfulness, lounging against the trunk and "polishing" his fingernails on his hoodie.

"Pretty neat how we thought to yell the same things at the same time. Are you telepathic or something?" Faith said jokingly.

"Yeah that was pretty cool. Great minds think alike!"

"Ha! Gil and I say that all the time!"

"I've noticed. You two are really close... Not to mention completely random!" He said, referring to a conversation earlier that week.

"You were following me home, weren't you?" He nodded. "I knew it! I knew someone was there!" She yelled, punching the air in excitement.

Suddenly something registered in Jack's brain. "Hey, did... what's your brother's name?"

"Nika."

"Got it. Did _Nika_," He snickered. "Say your hair color is natural?"

"Yep."

"Is it?"

"Yep. Colored streaks and all."  
"Bet you got teased for that a lot."

"You have no idea."

Jack cocked his head to the left. "Why haven't you dyed it a more normal color?"

She shrugged and looked at him. "Because I like it. Besides, eventually my natural color would merge with my dyed color, then it'd look even weirder and I'd have to re-dye it. It's just a waste of time."

"Yeah, I can see that."

There was some silence before Faith filled it with laughter. She had peeked around the trunk of the tree to see the girls trying to get the boys feet out of the ice without breaking a nail or using a "dirty" branch to chip the ice or something. It looked a bit pathetic.

Jack joined in, and they laughed for a good five minutes, Faith clinging onto the tree to avoid falling. It truly was a ridiculous, even slightly pathetic, scene.

"Oh jeez, failure!" Faith called out through her laughter, and Jack nodded, wiping away frozen tears of elation off his face.

Faith abruptly stopped laughing. "Do you hear that?" She asked nervously.

Jack listened and heard a sinister chuckle in the air, just loud enough to make out.

"Yeah, it sounds like trouble. Stay behind me." He told her. She nodded.

As Jack drifted in front of Faith, the chuckle grew louder. "You think you can protect her, don't you?" Said a slightly amused voice that Jack instantly recognized as Pitch.

"Leave us alone, Pitch." He spat.

"What do you mean, 'us'? I'm not after you, Jack. No, I've finally found that annoying red-head's main weakness. Now it's time to put it into play."

"Does he mean Gil? How does he know her?" Faith whispered to Jack.

"No time, tell you later." He replied.

To Pitch he yelled, "Hurt either of these girls, Pitch, and you won't be crawling out of that hole you call home for a few thousand centuries!"

"You're quite hot headed for a Winter Spirit. I never said I would hurt her. At least, not physically."

He appeared behind Faith and sprinkled a pile of thick nightmare sand on her. Only Pitch knew that this was a much higher concentration than normal, not to mention a huge overdose of it. Faith gasped and Jack whirled around, in time to see Pitch leave with a grin.

"Good luck getting her back, Jack." He laughed as he disappeared into the tree's shadow.

"Jack." Faith whispered.

Jack lowered his gaze to her and nearly jumped out of the tree. The after-effects of his little sled ride were a bright grin compared to this. She was shaking so hard, she would've fallen out of the tree if she weren't gripping onto the branch in terror, and her eyes seemed to be following something non-existent until he looked down at her.

Finally the nightmare sand took full effect and she passed out.

**A/N Yay, some action! **

**Oh, and I got the Jack-has-claustrophobia thing from Starskulls. Check out her stories, they're awesome! A bit violent but still awesome! ;)**

**I will try to update more, but I promise nothing.**

**You probably didn't notice, but my OCs names are just names I looked up fitting their personalities and/or what they represent. Example: Nika means ferocious, Gwyneira means snow, white, or white snow, and Faith; well, I didn't look up the meaning because it's rather obvious, plus once set back on track she is a really strong believer. **

**I just suck at coming up with names on my own, but the internet and my uncanny yet accidental eavesdropping comes in handy. ;)**

**My exceptions so far fall on Emily, Lydia, Sunshine, Craig, and later on Sally and Max. Those I just asked the people the character was based on what they would want their name to be in a story.**

** Got another idea, so next chapter is in progress, but I want to work on catching up AMM to the time period/season this is set in, so I can sort of merge this and it, plus I want to work on Discoveries and my other stories, not to mention school and stuff. This may not be updated for awhile, but I am not abandoning it, no chance!**


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